In order to take good pictures of deep space objects through a telescope, the shutter of a camera attached to the eye piece of the instrument must remain open for a span of 15 minutes to 1 hour for each photo attempt. The rotation of the earth during this relatively long exposure time period causes the stars and other objects to appear to move across the sky. To overcome this problem, the primary photographing telescope is fitted with a mechanical drive device that maintains the image of the deep space object at the center of the camera lens. The drive device is best controlled by an on board computer connected to a secondary telescope, or guide scope, securely fastened to the primary telescope. With the primary telescope focused on the deep space object, a bright star near the object is selected as a reference point. The guide scope is focused on that bright star and the computer maintains the bright star in the center of the guide scope by means of the drive device, thus maintaining the image of deep space object at the center of the camera lens for the full exposure time.
It is important to maintain the guide scope and primary telescope in a constant orientation to allow proper tracking of the object to be photographed. Commercial mounting brackets for attaching the guide scope to the primary telescope are available, but there is little or no capacity for adjusting the orientation of the guide scope relative to the mounting bracket which is secured to the primary telescope. This situation causes difficulties when there is no bright star near the deep space object to be photographed. Thus there is a need for a mounting system which will allow both the horizontal and vertical axis of the guide scope to be changed without moving the primary telescope.
A number of optical mounting systems have been described, including a solar and vertical sighting attachment for transits in U.S. Pat. No. 745,110 by Lallie.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,424,011 De Gramont discloses a telescope adjusting device where eccentrics 11 and 12 are rotated to adjust the azimuth and attitude of the scope held in the eccentrics and the spherical ball 5.
Braymer, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,693,032, describes a telescope mounting device which includes a hollow base for housing fragile parts of the instrument.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,023,503 Baker discloses an adjustable V-block support for maintaining cylindrical objects in a horizontal orientation. The support includes a cup-shaped socket with multiple adjusting screws.
Seible et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 3,074,315, describes a reflecting attachment for telescopes where a prism mounted in front of the telescope is rotated to cause the telescope to locate points on both sides of the telescope.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,642,341 Seifried discloses an optical aiming device for rifles which includes a telescopic sight held in a housing by springs and adjusted by set screws also held in the housing.
Eguchi, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,292, describes a lens barrel attachment including a camera lens holder having a click pin that inserts into a lens barrel indentation to hold lens and camera in a specific orientation.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,396,487 Abe et al. disclose a system of a set screw and spacers used to hold and shift an optical article positioned in an instrument.
Wilson, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,457,577, describes a quick-set precision optical holder that employs two adjustment screws and a pressure pin mechanism to retain a lens within a mount ring.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,262 Aoki et al. disclose a rotational torque setting apparatus for a screw mechanism used in an optical device such as a camera.
None of the above patents provide a mounting system that will allow both the horizontal and vertical axis of the guide scope to be changed without moving the primary telescope.